Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1887-01-24
For the HERALD.
Local OntiOn.


stood to refer TO the prohibition of the
sale of intoxicants in towns and cities,
individually considered, or to the legal
lied sale thereof under certain restric-
tons, as the majority of the local voters
may elect. Accepting the American
theory of government that the people
are the rulers as well as the ruled, the
principal of local option mus. be con-
sidered as absolutely sound, and the
only debatable question with reference to
this doctrine is that of policy and
feasibility. This third party Prohibit
tionists, it is true, insist that it is wrong
to license crime and therefore, they
say, it is VIGOROUSLY wrong to license
the selling Of liquor. Without denying
that it is wrong to licnse crime, it is
rather difficult for any, but those whose
reasoning powers have been slightly
demoralized by fine-spun visionary
theories, to understand Just how any
thing is crime that has been allowed
both by the laws of God and man ever
since the creation and is not made a
crime by the laws of either now. Moth
ing is crime that is not made so either
dy divine or human laws or by both,
and none but fanatics or willful de-
ceivers and their dupes will contend
that the mere fact of licensing thing
makes it a crime or even wrong. 1t
is admitted that the liquor traffic is an
evil and admitting for the sake of argu-
ment that it contains all the elements
of crime and nothing else, it does not
Justify the letting loose of the devil and
his angels with complete and unre-
strained freedom to work their fendish
will upon weak and susceptible human
ltY, rather than endeavoring to restrict
the traffic wher most fair-minded men
consider immediate Prohibition impos-
sible. The great end which the Pro-
hibitionists apparently desire to attain
is complete prohibition in fact as well
as in name over the whole OF the United
States. Wheather this can ever be at
tanned is question upon which Sir
Roger de Coyerley would say "much |
might be said upon both Sides" but |
granting that it is possible. experience
teaches us that the best way in which |
TO reach the top of lofty eminence is
by successive steps and not by one |
great bound in opposition to the laws
OF nature. Reform in the liquor traffic |
is not so different from other reforms
as to make 1t more practicable to begin |
at the end rather than at the beginning;
as to begin at the top instead of the
bottom; as to include at once the
whole TERRITORY rather than a part; or
as to begin with all the great public
rather than at individual homes which |
contain the life-blood of the body polite
The proper place to begin is in the
home and particularly through the pub
lie schools where the pernicious and
deleterious effects of alcohol should be
instilled in an unprejudiced manner into
the minds of the rising generation. If
the liquor traffic is ever to become a
thing of the past this must be the real
foundation of its extinction but this |
process requires time, and in the mean
time whenever the local sentiment be- |
comes sufficiently strong (as it will |
naturally develop more rapidly in some |
places than in others) the most prac-
ticable method of first bringing the |
matter to the polls is by means of local |
option laws. These laws can no doubt |
be advantageously applied successfully |
to towns, counties, and finally to states
as whole, and can perhaps in time be |
made national. Just in what manner
this growth should take place can not
be enlarged upon within the limits of
this article which is intended simply to
discuss some of the various points
concerning the local option law now
upon the statue books of this state.
But says the Prohibitionst, 1--WE
have had the local option law for years
and it has proven failure" If the
failure has been due to some defect in
the law itself, perhaps the matter can
be remedied and the weak points COW
cred by additional legislation, or per-
haps the law may be made more effec-
tive by enlarging its scope so as to
make IL aOply m countips ~ - hos